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tv   C-SPAN Weekend  CSPAN  November 1, 2009 10:30am-1:00pm EST

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no word on when san francisco's bay bridge might reopen, even though work on the bridge is going on round the clock right now. it was closed indefinitely last week when a steel beam and two wires fell off onto the roadway. secretary of state hillary clinton trying to jump-start the israeli/palestinian peace process. she's already met with president mahmoud abbas and she is set to meet with israeli prime minister. the chief palestinian negotiator describes the peace process as stuck. another tie fon has roared into the philippines. at least 14 people are dead and four feared missing. the typhoon is the fourth to hit the country in a month.
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these are some of the stories making headlines this first sunday in november. i'm natasha curry, welcome back to hln. a bit of controversy in game three of the world series last night. larry kmij here to explain what happened. larry? >> natasha, the bank yeez getting the benefit of instant replay used for the first time in a world series game. here's what happened. alex rodriguez hits what appears to be a run-scoring double. but umpires check the replay and that showed the ball actually ricochetted off a tv camera behind the wall. they get together, talk about it and the ruling is a home run. new york winning the game 8-5, leadi inin ining the series 2-1. history in philly. the only challenger in the after fghan presidential race i pulling out. he says the next vote will be just as rigged as the only vote. >> the only way to decided that
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this city and this country will be through free and fair electrics. so my message is loud and clear to the enemies of the democratic process and through our commitment to these principles and values, we will disappoint anybody who would like to become an obstacle to us, the process. >> hundreds of thousands of votes were tossed out in the first round because of massive fraud. president hamid karzai won it, but he couldn't avoid a runoff. hillary clinton said yesterday the race would be legitimate even if abdullah quit. a senior administration official says the white house supports a credible process, not any particular candidate. police in cleveland are checking missing persons reports dating back to june of 2005. they're trying to learn the identity of the decomposing corpses found in this man's home. anthony sowell was arrested on rape and assault charges yesterday. police went to his home to arrest him last week, and they
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found six bodies inside and outside. two of the corpses are black females and one of them died a violent death. sowell was released from prison in 2005 after serving 15 years for rape. you've heard a lot about the so-called public option in the house version of the health care legislation. well, the congressional budget office estimates that only 2% of americans under the age of 65 would use that option. the cbo also estimates the vast majority of americans would keep their private insurers if the house bill becomes law. even though the cbo is a nonpartisan economic analyst, the health insurance industry is questioning their findings. treasury secretary timothy geithner says that the economic recovery could be a little choppy. in an interview that airs today he said it will take a while for the economy to come back. he said this crisis hurt the economy a lot so it's taking time to fix that. there are encouraging signs in the economy right now, but he refused to say whether the
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recession is over. he says the real test of recovery is bringing back jobs and investors' confidence. police in seattle say one of their officers was shot and killed last night. our seattle affiliate the king reports it was a training officer who was killed. he was in a car with a female rookie officer when a car pulled alongside and opened fire. king says that the rookie was wounded but managed to fire several shots as the car backed away and left the scene. a search is under way for the shooters. this is the first seattle police officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2006. even as hope dims of finding any survivors, rescuers are still searching the waters off southern california for a third straight day today. overnight thursday a coast guard plane collided with a marine helicopter. witnesses say that a massive fireball fell into the pacific ocean after the collision. the nine people on board the two aircraft are now feared dead. the coast guard says all nine
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had access to heat-retaining drysuits and were in excellent physical shape. there were problems with halloween night last night as far as the world series goes. we're talking about a lot of rain. what about today? how is it looking for the world series? reynolds wolf joins us. >> looks like it will be a little better. if you happen to be a phillies fan, hopefully better than the three home runs the phillies gave up to the yankees and the yankees winning the game. tonight in philadelphia, conditions should be a little better. one of the issues we had last night of course were the scattered showers. still we see them moving through the philadelphia area. what we expect is for the frontal boundary to drive on through. when it does, what we expect is for a little bit of the drier air to be moving into the area for the series. now, tonight for the series itself, we expect temperatures right into the 40s, a few scattered clouds, wind from the north around three to six, first pitch, 8:20. for the rest of the nation, we can expect the frontal boundary to make its way to the eastern seaboard, high pressure into the
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ohio and tennessee valleys, pretty nice conditions, a lot of sunshine popping up in the ohio valley and even back towards texas. something else we can expect will be temperatures to be a little bit on the cool side into the great lakes with highs that are going to be mainly into the 50s, memphis, 63, 73 in dallas, 86 in phoenix, 68 and dry in san francisco, 52 in billings and 55 in minneapolis. that is a look at your forecast. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. fishing no longer means the same thing as fishing with a rod and reel. these days fishing is just another way to try and steal your money. our money expert jennifer wechb westhoven is looking out for you. >> there's a new scam. you've heard the led lines about banks failing. that can be scary. criminals are going to use your fear to try and steal your sensitive financial information. the fdic is warning you might get an e-mail that looks innocent.
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the subject line says check your bank deposit insurance coverage. well, if you see that, don't even open it, delete it. it is not from the fdic. it's from the bad die dpguys. it says, type in your information and you can see if your money is safe, insured. that sounds good, but they don't really mean safe. they mean safe with them. don't sfaul for that. phishing attacks tripled may to september according to ibm. even just by getting ahold of your e-mail account and password, they can find ways and maybe worm into your bank account. be very careful. keep your with money safe. remember, no reputable company asks for sensitive information through an e-mail. you can always go to the company's website and login that way if you want to check something. i'm jennifer westhoven looking out for you. >> thank you, jen. you can get more great money advice from jennifer each weekday on "morning express" from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. eastern. oh, its rider got slapped
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with a dwi. now his motorized recliner is on ebay, and you won't believe how high the bids are getting.
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a robbery suspect is in critical condition after a group of people reportedly beat him up. phoenix police say justin pear broke into an apartment late friday night and tried to rub a man at gunpoint. when pear told the man inside not to move or he'd shoot, the man took off. that's when neighbors stepped in. >> when i came out, i seen the gun. i told my kids, get me my bat.
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i went out there, we cracked him with the bat. >> he deserved whatever he got. he pointed a gun at all of us, saying give us your money. he meant business. >> three victims had minor injuries. pear has a skull fracture and other life threatening injuries. southwest airlines is saying it's sorry for kicking a mother and her toddler off a flight. the crew booted them because the boy screams of go plane go and i want daddy drowned out the preflight safety announcement. the boy's mom said she was confident he would have behaved once the plane took off, but they never got that chance. southwest called her, offered her a refund, and a $300 travel voucher. a marine who recently returned from afghanistan says he was a bit overwhelmed by the reception he got from a third grade class in arizona. sergeant andrew valora was stationed in afghanistan when he was adopted by the class and started getting packages and letters from the students. he was invited to the school thursday to meet the students and expected a small gathering.
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but the class had other ideas, putting on an extravagant party. >> i thought i was going to come home and see the kids and the class. i didn't think it was going to be a huge production, but it's very nice to see how much they think i meant to them, but i hope i can convey how much they really mean to me. >> and the children sang a song valora is very familiar with, "god bless the usa." while he was in afghanistan, the class recorded a video of them singing that song and vaora played td for his entire unit. very cool. it's extremely rare, a world series game on halloween. larry smith here with more. >> the only will time it happened was in 2001 when the world series was delayed a week after the 9/11 attacks. the team that won both halloween games? the new york yankees. game three was delayed by an hour for rain. after that, yankees found treats, courtesy pitching. alex rodriguez tees off, nick
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swisher and matsui. three home runs for the yankees, won 8-5, lead the series two-1. game four tonight in philadelphia. college football, top-ranked florida versus georgia. watch riley cooper back in the end zone with the unbelievable catch here. all gators in this one. they remain undefeated. tebow passes walker on the scec's rushing touchdown list. 41-17 the gators rolls over georgia. a tough season continues for uconn. the huskies, their fist home game after the stabbing death of jasper howard. they were leading until tim brown goes 81 yards for the game winning touchdown catch. here's the thing. brown was one of hauoward's bes friend and said only howard would have had the speed to catch him. 24-21 uconn. the tof lus. what a turning point for the hawkize. down at halftime to lowly indiana. this turned it around. one more look, the quarterback
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is hit. watch how many times this ball bounces around, winds up in the hands of a hawkeye, goes off for the interception return for the touchdown. they rally to beat indiana sfroo-24 and remain undefeated on the season. the bat cage is where san antonio plays. did you know that? that is a bat during an nba game. sacramento's kevin martin has no idea he has a friend flying with him on the fast break. the mascot tries to catch him. the real batman, ginobili. look at that. ever try to hit a fly? try hitting a bat, and he does. no word on the bat's condition. did he go to the hospital? concussion? i don't know. ginobili gets the job done, though. that's sports. the turnaround looks at entrepreneurs adjusting to a rough economy and turning their small businesses around. allan chernoff looks at small
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independent retailers are teaming up to achieve success. >> reporter: kelly dell rosso and her father jim are trying to be optimistic about the upcoming holiday shopping season. like many small, independent retailers the months of november and december can make or break their home furnishings business. >> the holiday was rough last year, definitely rouf rough tflt's been a difficult year. people are not shopping for sport anymore. >> reporter: main street usa has lost a lot of its hustle and bustle to shopping malls, big box stores and discount super centers, all competing for fewer shopping dollars to stay in the ga game, kelly has teamed up with many stores, some of which her direct competitors. she says they have to think like mall store owners in order to survive. >> it's such a big message nationally that, you know, if stores get together and realize that, you know what, if your neighbor closes on your right and on your left, you are not an
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island. >> she built a group website, sent out flyers and coupons, got on facebook and linked up with the 350 project, a national bi-local move the. thousands of independent retailers in communities from arizona to alabama to illinois have joined on, too. >> we're not telling consumers to stop going to big boxes or stop going to chains and franchises because it's unrealistic. it's about remembering that not all things have to come from a big box. >> reporter: and that some say is important not just to retailers but cash-starved communities as well. according to a recent studdedy, for every $100 spent in the independently owned stores, $68 goes back to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenses. the if that same $100 is spent in a national chain or big box, just the $43 stays local. kelly and jim dellrosso are hoping shoppers nz their town get that message. >> the sense of community has
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been unbelievable. there are so many customers who walk in and say, i'm here to shop local. >> reporter: local retailers hope that message carries them through a crucial holiday season. al allan chernoff, cnn.
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the parents of a 15-year-old california girl who was allegedly gang-raped are urging people in their community to do something positive. yesterday their pastor read their statement during an event at the high school where the alleged attack happened. the police say as many as ten people were involved in the rape, which supposedly happened during a homecoming dance. five people were arrested, but authorities say a sixth person won't be charged because there is insufficient evidence. an iraqi immigrant accused of running down his daughter because she was too westernized has been extradited back to arizona. the u.s. marshals arrested him in the atlanta airport on thursday. he trieded to fly to the united kingdom but had been denied entrance and returned to the united states. he is accused of running over
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his daughter with his car because he didn't think she was living her life according to the traditional iraqi values. she remains in the hospital in serious remains in the hospital in serious condition. the suspect in a deadly iraq bombing managed to kill someone during a police interrogation. iraq's interior of ministry says he grabbed a gun from a guard and shot an investigator. the investigator wrestled the gun back and shot the suspect. both died from their injuries. the suspect also looted the guard he took the gun from. investigators were questioning him in last sunday's bombing in baghdad that killed at least 160 people. that was iraq's deadliest bombing since 2007. kids get excited about halloween, but does that mean that the sugar in all that candy they got last night makes kids overexcited? let's go beyond the surface and find out. >> the more sugar that my child has, the more hyper.
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>> they bounce off the walls. >> anything with sugar sets them off. >> it is absolutely untrue that sugar makes kids hyper. there have been 12 well-designed, randomized placebo-controlled trials looking at all kinds of factors. all of these studies show that there's no relationship between sugar and a kid's hyperactivity. there's some truth to the idea that sugar is glucose is glucose is one of the things that gives a body injury, but it doesn't make you hyper. kids often would get sugar at other times they would be excited. this weekend, you might run into this probable as your kids try to eat as much al halloween candy as possible. and they might be very excited and hyper about the holiday, but it's not because of the candy. the bids are really stacking up for a motorized recliner a man drove while drunk. >> and then about five minutes later, they called me, $20,000! i'm look, are you kidding me? >> and with just a couple days left in the auction, the price is going up.
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the manhunt for a suspected rapist is over. he's behind bars now and police are questioning him about the six bodies they found in and around his home. the only challenger in the afghan presidential runoff says that he's out of the race. why he thinks having only one candidate left will help democracy. plus, should kids get the h1n1 flu vaccine? some moms say, definitely, others think, no way. hey, good morning. i'm natasha curry and you're watching hln knew news and views on this first sunday of november. now, first things first, did you remember to fall back? we're now on standard time, folks. and if you haven't set your
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clocks back an hour, you're going to be an hour early. our top story today is on the minds of a lot of drivers. the reopening date for the san francisco oakland bay bridge is still up in the air. transportation officials are refusing to commit to a date, but they do say they're working on it around the clock. >> the design that originally happened when the crack was found is the saddle assembly that we installed. then, based on the tuesday event, we decided to make enhancements to that design. so, really, the secondary design occurred this last tuesday. and now, in the field, we're making further adjustments. >> last tuesday, two steel rods and a steel cross beam fell off the bridge and landed of roadway. the bridge has been closed ever since, leading to a traffic nightmare for bay area drivers. the only challenger in the afghan presidential race is pulling out. abdullah abdullah says that next saturday's runoff will be just as rigged as the first round of
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voting. h he expla he explained it this way. >> the only way to decide that this city and this country will be through free and fair elections, so my message is loud and clear to the enemies of democratic process and through our commitment to these principles and values, we will disappoint anybody who would like to become an obstacle to us, the process. >> hundreds of thousands of votes were tossed out in the first round because of massive fraud. president hamid karzai won it, but he couldn't avoid a runoff. secretary of state hillary clinton said yesterday the race would be legitimate, even if abdullah quit. a senior administration official says that the white house supports a credible process, not any particular candidate. police in cleveland are checking missing persons reports dating back to june of 2005. they're trying to learn the identity of the decomposing corpses found in this man's
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home. anthony sowell was arrested on rape and assault charges yesterday. when police went to his home to arrest him last week, they found the six bodies inside and outside. police say two of the corpses are black females and that one of them died a violent death. sowell was released from prison in 2005 after serving 15 years for rape. you've heard a lot about the so-called public option in the house version of the health care legislation. well, the congressional budget office estimates that only 2% of americans under the age of 65 would use that option. the cbo also estimates the vast majority of americans would keep their private insurers if the house bill becomes law. even though the cbo is a nonpartisan economic analyst, the health insurance industry is questioning their findings. treasury secretary timothy geithner says that the economic recovery could be a little choppy. in an interview that airs today, he said it will take a while for the economy to come back. he says this crisis hurt the economy a lot, so it's taken
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time to fix that and there are encouraging signs right now in the economy, but he refused to say whether the recession is over. he said the real test of recovery is bringing back jobs and investors' confidence. president obama celebrated halloween the same way that many of you might have, greeting trick-or-treaters. some 2,000 kids came to the white house with their parents and mr. obama doled out presidential m&ms, dried fruit, and buttered cookies made by a white house chef. first lady michelle obama wore cat ears and a top with a leopard pattern. mr. obama called her a very nice-looking catwoman. and the first couple later held a reception for military families in the white house. two men originally involved with a radicalist islamic group have an extradition hearing in canada tomorrow. a two-year investigation by the fbi alleges they conspired to commit federal crimes.
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their arrest came days after a shoot-out with the fbi in detroit. the son of an imam in that shooting was also arrested in windsor. the number of kids who died from swine flu jumped this month. the cdc says h1n1 killed 19 kids for the week ending of october 23rd. at least 114 kids have died since the spring. the government says children are at high risk for h1n1 and should get vaccinated. as mary snow reports, the advice has some parents divided. >> want to get a class out or something? >> reporter: laura wellington says she does what she can to keep her 10-year-old daughter izzy healthy along with the rest of her family. but when it comes to the h1n1 vaccine -- >> i'm absolutely not getting the children vaccinate, no. the worth is not risk it. >> reporter: laura has four children and is pregnant with her fifth. she's not against vaccines in general and has paid close attention to information about swine flu and talked to her
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doctors. is your main concern side effects, the speed of the vaccine? what's the main concern? >> it's side effects, it's potential down the line. you know, you put something new into your body, people react very differently to different things that they put into their body. one person, it might be fin fe for, another person, it may not. >> reporter: and while laura not worried about her kids getting the swine flu, amy my sanny is. she's especially worried about her 9-year-old son who was hospitalized as a baby because of the flu. >> i am really nervous. >> reporter: because you've seen what happened when he had the flu before. >> i am. i work for an advocacy group and i've met a lot of parents who have lost their children to regular seasonal flu. and i'm so grateful that that didn't happen to us. >> reporter: amy was able to get the h1n1 vaccine for her son, nicholas, but she's still anxiously awaiting to secure one for antonio. in the meantime -- >> we have stuff all over the
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house. i constantly tell them to wash their hands and the antibacterial gels are on the kitchen table, on the counter in the bathroom. it's a constant issue for us. we think about it all the time and my kids are pretty paranoid at this point. >> reporter: among parents concerned about the vaccine, one big question is potential side effects. health officials say they see no proof of any damaging side effects. they do say there may be some soreness or redness in the arm, similar to a seasonal flu shot. mary snow, cnn, new york. police in seattle say one of their officers was shot and killed last night. our seattle affiliate king reports it was a training officer who was killed. he was in a car with a female rookie officer when a car pulled alongside and opened fire. king says that the rookie was wounded, but managed to fire several shots as the car backed away and left the scene. a search is under way for the shooters. now, this is the first seattle police officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2006. even as hope dims of finding
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any survivors, rescuers are still searching the waters off southern california for a third straight day today. overnight thursday, a coast guard plane collided with a marine helicopter. witnesses say that a massive fireball fell into the pacific ocean after the collision. the nine people on board the two aircraft are now feared dead. the coast guard says all nine had access to heat-retaining dry suits and were in excellent physical shape. there were problems with halloween night last night, as far as the world series goes. we're talking about a lot of rain. but what about today? how's it looking for the world series? reynolds wolf joins us now. hey, reynolds. >> looks like it will be a little bit better. if you're a phillies fan, hopefully better than the three home runs the phillies gave up to the yankees last night and led to the yankees winning that game. tonight in philadelphia, conditions should be a little bit better. one of the issues we had last night were those scattered showers. we see them moving right through the philadelphia area. we expect that frontal boundary
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to drive right on through. and when it does, we expect for a little bit of drier air to be moving into the area for the series. tonight, for the series itself, what we expect is temperatures will be right into the 40s, a few scattered clouds, wind out of the north around 3 to 6 and the first pitch should be around 8:20. meanwhile, for the rest of the nation, we can expect that frontal boundary to make itself way out to the eastern seaboard. pretty nice conditions. a lot of sunshine in a few places like the ohio valley, even back towards texas. something else we can expect is temperatures to be a little bit on the cool side in the great lakes with highs that are going to be mainly into the 50s in many spots. 73 in dallas, 86 in phoenix. 68 and dry in san francisco. 52 in billings and 55 in minneapolis. that is a look at your forecast. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. what a stunning turnaround last night in game three of the world series. after a long rain delay, it looked like the hometown philadelphia phillies were on their way to a big win, but then the yankees' superstars took over.
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a robbery suspect is in critical condition after a group of people reportedly beat him up. phoenix police say justin pear broke into an apartment late friday night and tried to rob a man at gunpoint. when pear told the man not to move or he would shoot, the man took off and that's when neighbors stepped in. >> when i came out, i seen the gun. i told my kids, get me my bat. and i went out there, we cracked him with the bat. >> he deserved whatever he got. he pointed a gun at all of us, saying, give us your money. he meant business. >> three victims had minor injuries. pear has a skull fracture and other life-threatening injuries. southwest airlines is saying it's sorry for kicking a mother and her toddler off a flight. the crew booted them because the boy's screams of "go, plane, go" and "i want daddy" drowned out the plane's pre-flight safety
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announcement. southwest called her, offered her a refund and a $300 travel voucher. a marine who recently returned from afghanistan said that he was a bit overwhelmed by the reception he got from a third grade class in arizona. sergeant andrew valora was stationed in afghanistan when he was adopted by the class and started getting packages and letters from the students. he was invited to the school thursday to meet the students and expected a small gathering, but the class had other ideas, putting on an extravagant party. >> i thought i was just going to come home and see the kids in the class. i didn't think it was going to be a huge production. but it's very nice to see how much they think i meant to them, but i hope i can convey how much they really mean to me. >> and the children sang a song valora is very familiar, "god bless the usa." while he was in afghanistan, the class recorded a video of them singing that song and valora
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played it for his entire unit. very cool. brett favre returns to green bay, but he is not wearing the home colors?! what's going on here? larry smith has more. >> most of favre's history with the packers is great, two super bowls, one championship in 16 seasons. when he retired in 2008, the packers elevated aaron rodgers to starting quarterback. but when favre had a change of heart a few months later, the packers chose to stick with rogers and favre went on to play for the jets and now the rival vikings. will become super bowl favorites. it has been an interesting week is in green bay, full of pranks and jabs at their former hero. >> to go for the vikings, i mean, that's -- that's tough, right there. that's like a stab. so i think he's pretty much a traitor. >> they should cheer him on like they did when he was a packer. because he's worth it. they shouldn't be thinking of him, what jersey he's wearing,
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they should think of brett favre as who he is, what he's done. and even if they are packer fans, they should remember what he did for green bay. >> amazing to find favre vikings' jerseys on sale in green bay. that kansas city running back who wrote homosexual slurs in his twitter account may have his suspension cut in half from two weeks down to one week. it would save larry johnson about $100,000. he also publicly questioned coach todd hailey's lack of coaching experience. and the tiger's rout in colorado thanks to this. reaches back behind, it's a bad pass, but jackson makes up for it. could be the play of the day if we were choosing that. but we're not. very nice. that's sports. often we talk about women moving up in the corporate world and shattering the glass ceiling. but during world war ii, that was even harder to do. lauren stineheist talks about her mother, marianne coleman,
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blazed a trail for others as a breakthrough woman. >> i'm lauren stineheist and the breakthrough i nominate is marianne. marianne's a member of the greatest generation and her whole life was filled with breakthrough moments. she was my mother. my mother always told my i could do anything and she blazed a trail for me to follow with her own breakthrough career into a man's world of journalism. i always wanted to be a writer like my mother. the first female newspaper wire service editor, ap, 1942. i'm proud that she held the equivalent rank of brigadier general. she was passionate about what he believed in, a civil rights activist, and a hard-hitting investigative reporter. she opened doors for me, for all women, by breaking through the pink-colored ceiling, one achievement at a time.
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i'm robin meade. hope you enjoyed an extra hour of sleep, many of you, last night. here's what we're working on for the week ahead. we're going to find out tuesday if a presidential endorsement will impact the governor's race in virginia. president obama has personally campaigned for the democratic candidate and some republicans say that the race is a referendum on his first few months in office. also, tuesday, the odd couple teams up again. the reverend al sharpton and former house speaker newt gingrich make the second stop on their education reform tour. this time they meet up with the education secretary in new orleans. plus, the latest unemployment numbers come out this week. we're going to see if things are starting to turn around. all those stories and much more starting tomorrow morning. "morning express with robin meade." why don't you catch it every weekday from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. eastern. the parents of a 15-year-old california girl who was allegedly gang-raped are urging
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people in their community to do something positive. yesterday, their pastor read their statement during an event at the high school where the alleged attack happened. police say as many as ten people were involved in the rape, which supposedly happened during a homecoming dance. five people were arrested, but authorities say a sixth person won't be charged, because there is insufficient evidence. an iraqi immigrant accused of running down his daughter because she was too westernized has been extradited back to arizona. u.s. marshals arrested faleh almaleki in the airport yesterday. he had tried to fly to the united kingdom, but was denied entrance and returned to the united states. almaleki is accused of running over his daughter with his car because he didn't think she was living her life according to the traditional iraqi values. noor almaleki remains in the hospital in serious condition. the suspect in a deadly iraq bombing managed to kill someone
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during a police interrogation. iraq's interior of ministry says he grabbed a gun from a guard and shot an investigator. the investigator wrestled the gun back and shot the suspect. both died from their injuries. the suspect also looted the guard he took the gun from. investigators were questioning him in last sunday's bombing in baghdad that killed at least 160 people. that was iraq's deadliest bombing since 2007. the bids are really stacking up for a motorized recliner a man drove while drunk. >> and then about five minutes later, they called me, $20,000! i'm like, are you kidding me?! >> and with just a couple days left in the auction, the price is going up. xxxxxxxxxx
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no wortd on when san francisco's bay bridge might reopen, even though work on the bridge is going on around the clock. it was closed indefinitely last week when a steel beam and two wires fell off on to the roadway. secretary of state hillary clinton trying to jump-start the israeli/palestinian praes process. clinton's already met with mahmoud abbas and she's set to meet with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the chief palestinian negotiator describes the peace process as stuck. another typhoon has roared into the philippines. at least 15 people are dead and four feared missing. the typhoon is the fourth to hit
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the country in a month. and those are some of the stories making headlines this first sunday in november already. i'm natasha curry. welcome back to hln. a bit of controversy in game three of the world series last night. larry smith here to explain what happened. larry? >> natasha, the yankees getting the benefit of instant replay, used for the first time in a world series game last night in philadelphia. here's what happened. alex rodriguez hits what appears to be a run-scoring double. but umpires check the replay and that showed the ball actually ricocheted off a tv camera behind the wall. they get together, talk about it, the ruling, it's a home run. new york winning the game 8-5, leading the series two games to one. more sports in a few minutes. history in philly. the only challenger in the afghan presidential race is pulling out. abdullah abdullah says that next saturday's runoff will be just as rigged as the first round of voting. he explained it this week.
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>> the only way to decide that this city and this country will be through free and fair elections. so my message is loud and clear to the enemies of the democratic process. and through our commitment to these principles and values, we will disappoint anybody who would like to become an obstacle to us in the process. >> hundreds of thousands of votes were tossed out in the first round because of massive fraud. president hamid karzai won it, but he couldn't avoid a runoff. secretary of state hillary clinton said yesterday the race would be legitimate, even if abdullah quit. a senior administration official says that the white house supports a credible process, not any particular candidate. police in cleveland are checking missing persons reports dating back to june of 2005. they're trying to learn the identity of the decomposing corpses found in this man's home. anthony sowell was arrested on rape and assault charges yesterday. when police went to his home to arrest him last week, they found
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the six bodies inside and outside. police say two of the corpses are black females and that one of them died a violent death. sowell was released from prison in 2005 after serving 15 years for rape. you've heard a lot about the so-called public option in the house version of the health care legislation. well, the congressional budget office estimates that only 2% of americans under the age of 65 would use that option. the cbo also estimates the vast majority of americans would keep their private insurers if the house bill becomes law. even though the cbo is a nonpartisan economic analyst, the health insurance industry is questioning their findings. treasury secretary timothy geithner says that the economic recovery could be a little choppy. in an interview that airs today, he said it will take a while for the economy to come back. he says this crisis hurt the economy a lot, so it's taken time to fix that and there are encouraging signs right now in the economy, but he refused to say whether the recession is over.
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he said the real test of recovery is bringing back jobs and investors' confidence. president obama celebrated halloween the same way that many of you might have, greeting trick-or-treaters. some 2,000 kids came to the white house with their parents and mr. obama doled out presidential m&ms, dried fruit, and buttered cookies made by a white house chef. first lady michelle obama wore cat ears and a top with a leopard pattern. mr. obama called her a very nice-looking catwoman. and the first couple later held a reception for military families in the white house. two men allegedly involved with a radical islamist group have an extradition hearing in canada tomorrow. they were arrested in windsor, ontario, yesterday morning. a two-year investigation by the fbi alleges they conspired to commit federal crimes. their arrest came days after a shoot-out with the fbi in detroit.
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the son of an imam killed in that shooting was also arrested in windsor. police in seattle say one of their officers was shot and killed last night. our seattle affiliate king reports it was a training officer who was killed. he was in a car with a female rookie officer when a car pulled alongside and opened fire. king says that the rookie was wounded, but managed to fire several shots as the car backed away and left the scene. a search is under way for the shooters. now, this is the first seattle police officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2006. even as hope dims of finding any survivors, rescuers are still searching the waters off of southern california for a third straight day today. overnight thursday, a coast guard plane collided with a marine helicopter. witnesses say that a massive fireball fell into the pacific ocean after the collision. the nine people on board the two aircraft are now feared dead. the coast guard says all nine had access to heat-retaining dry suits and were in excellent
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physical shape. there were problems with halloween night last night, as far as the world series goes. we're talking about a lot of rain. but what about today? how's it looking for the world series? reynolds wolf joins us now. hey, reynolds. >> looks like it will be a little bit better. if you're a phillies fan, hopefully better than the three home runs the phillies gave up to the yankees last night and led to the yankees winning that game. tonight in philadelphia, conditions should be a little bit better. one of the issues we had last night were those scattered showers. we see them moving right through the philadelphia area. we expect that frontal boundary to drive right on through. and when it does, we expect for a little bit of drier air to be moving into the area for the series. tonight, for the series itself, what we expect will be temperatures right into the 40s, a few scattered clouds, wind out of the north around 3 to 6 and the first pitch should be around 8:20. meanwhile, for the rest of the nation, we can expect that frontal boundary to make its way out to the eastern seaboard, high pressure will give you pretty nice conditions, a lot of
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sunshine popping up in a few places like in the ohio valley, even back towards texas. something else we can expect is temperatures to be a little bit on the cool side in the great lakes with highs that are going to be mainly into the 50s in many spots. memphis with 63 degrees. 73 in dallas, 86 in phoenix. 68 and dry in san francisco. 52 in billings and 55 in minneapolis. that is a look at your forecast. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. the amount of waste going into landfills all across the country is massive and is a big environmental concern. reporter kimberly thompson of ohio affiliate whio found a rather unique but simple ecosolution involving worms. >> here at wright/patterson air force base recycling center, these worms take unwanted food and convert it into nutrient-rich soil for plants. >> in this bin right here, there's about 3,000 red wigglers. >> reporter: the air force base
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recycling center feeds these worms daily with fruits and vegetables from the base commissary. >> you put 50% newspaper in there, throw your fruits and vegetables in there and you come out with a product like this. >> reporter: at one time, they fed this to more than 600,000 worms. >> 400 pounds her day, that's a ton per week, 52 tons per year that we were feeding these worms that we didn't have to pay to dispose of and went to a landfill. >> reporter: not only do these worms keep solid waste out of the landfills, they also produce nutritious plant food. >> to me, it's a high-grade fertilizer, all natural. >> reporter: people on the base use this in their gardens. >> we've got people telling us these are the best tomatoes they've ever had these season. >> reporter: while gardens are system, as long as these worms are get at 70 degrees, they'll continue teo eat, produce, and multiply year round. >> every 90 days, the amount of
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worms you have will double. >> reporter: that means more garbage kept out of the landfills and put back into our soil. >> for more important environmental news, go to our website, cnn.com/ecosolutions.
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a robbery suspect is in critical condition after a group of people reportedly beat him up. justin pear broke into an apartment late friday night and tried to rob a man at gunpoint. when pear told the man inside not to move or he'd shoot, the man took off and that's when neighbors stepped in. >> when i came out, i seen the gun. i told my kids, get me my bat. and i went out there, we cracked him with the bat. >> he deserved whatever he got. he pointed a gun at all of us, saying, give us your money. he meant business. >> three victims had minor injuries.
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pear has a skull fracture and other life-threatening injuries. southwest airlines is saying it's sorry for kicking a mother and her toddler off a flight. the crew booted them because the boy's screams of "go, plane, go" and "i want daddy" drowned out the pre-flight safety announcement. the boy's mom says she was confident he would have behaved once the plane took off, but they never got that chance. southwest called her, offered her a refund and a $300 travel voucher. a marine who recently returned from afghanistan said that he was a bit overwhelmed by the reception he got from a third grade class in arizona. sergeant andrew valora was stationed in afghanistan when he was adopted by the class and started getting packages and letters from the students. he was invited to the school thursday to meet the students and expected a small gathering, but the class had other ideas, putting on an extravagant party. >> i thought i was just going to come home and see the kids in
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the class. i didn't think it was going to be a huge production. but it's very nice to see how much they think i meant to them, but i hope i can convey how much they really mean to me. >> and the children sang a song valora is very familiar, "god bless the usa." while he was in afghanistan, the class recorded a video of them singing that song and valora played it for his entire unit. very cool. it's extremely rare. a world series game on halloween. larry smith here with more. hey, larry. >> hey, natasha. only time it happened was in 2001 when the world series was delayed a week after 9/11 attacks. the team that won both halloween games, the new york yankees. game three was delayed by an hour rain delay, but after that the yankees found some treats courtesy of phillies' pitching. alex rodriguez, he tees off, they get the win 8-5 and now lead this series two games to one. game four tonight in
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philadelphia. college football now. top-ranked florida versus georgia. watch reilly cooper, back of the end zone with the unbelievable catch. all gators in this one and they remain undefeated. tebow patch on the all s.e.c.'s rushing touchdowns list. 50th rushing touchdown here for the senior and heisman winner, 41-17, the gators roll over georgia. a tough season continues for uconn, the huskies, their first home game after the stabbing death of teammate jasper howard. they were leading late until tim brown goes 83 yards for the touchdown catch. brown was one of howard's best friends and said later only howard would have had the speed to catch him. 28-24, uconn, a tough loss, again. what a turning point for the iowa hawkeyes. they were down at halftime to lowly indiana, but this turns it around. the quarterback is hit, look how many times this ball bounces around, winds up in the hands of a hawkeye, thank you very much. goes off for the interception
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return for the touchdown. they rally to beat indiana 22-24 and remain undefeated on the season. the bat cave. that's what san antonio plays. that's a bat during an nba game. sacramento's kevin martin has no idea he's got a friend flying right along with him on the fast break. the mascot tries to catch him. dressed up for hallhalloween. but the real bat man, ginobli. ever try hitting a fly? try hitting a bat. and he does. no word on the bat's condition. did he go to the hospital? concussion? i don't know. but ginobli gets the job done, though. that's sports. hey, how about this for a markup. an item that costs a little over a dollar sold for nearly 200 bucks. inspectors say one military contractor padded the bills and a lot of your money paid for it.
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the parents of a 15-year-old california girl who was allegedly gang-raped are urging people in their community to do something positive. yesterday, their pastor read their statement during an event at the high school where the alleged attack happened. police say as many as ten people
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were involved in the rape, which supposedly happened during a homecoming dance. five people were arrested, but authorities say a sixth person won't be charged, because there is insufficient evidence. an iraqi immigrant accused of running down his daughter because she was too westernized has been extradited back to arizona. u.s. marshals arrested faleh almaleki at the atlanta airport on thursday. he tried to fly to the united kingdom, but had been denied entrance and returned to the united states. almaleki is accused of running over his daughter with his car because he didn't think she was living her life according to the traditional iraqi values. noor almaleki remains in the hospital in serious condition. the suspect in a deadly iraq what kind of business gets 800% of a markup on things it's reselling? federal inspectors say a military contractor in iraq does. and as brian todd reports, if someone's being ripped off, your
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money is paying for it. >> reporter: $196.50 for a box of washers that's supposed to cost $1.22. that's how much the inspector general for iraq's reconstruction says american taxpayers have been overbilled by a contractor that supplies vehicle parts for the iraqi army. >> we are going to work with the army material command, the army contractor command to make sure this money is recouped and the taxpayers' interests are protected. >> reporter: he deals with a company called aecom which provides logistics support. they looked at four invoices and found that a, ecom could have overbilled the government about $4 million when it sought repayment for parts and services. try an 846% markup for a jug of coolant and antifreeze.
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contacted by cnn, a senior vice president from aecom sent a statement. "as the report notes, this is an issue that we self-identified and corrected, making an immediate repayment over but i also read a letter from his office. in their rebut l, they're using words like unsupported. they say not only is it flawed, but they overcredited the u.s. government and that they're owed $268,000. >> the overbillings occurred. we know that. they are claiming we paid them back. my auditors disagree. we produced 300 audits for the last six years. $50 million returned from our investigatio investigations. >> other officials in the office tell us this is part of a much larger problem still going on
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six and a half years after the iraq war started. they say they've audited more than 20,000 defense department transactions and have also found duplicate payments and payments to false vendors. the suspect in a deadly iraq bombing managed to kill someone during a police investigation. he grabbed a gun from a guard and shot an investigator. the investigator wrestled the gun back and shot the suspect. both died from their injuries. the suspect also wounded the guard he took the gun from. investigators were questioning him last sunday in the bombing in baghdad. that was iraq's deadliest bombing since 2007. the bids are really stacking up for a motorized recliner a man drove while drunk. >> they call me -- are you kidding? >> and with just a couple of
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days left in the auction, the price is going up. nnnnnnn
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ever since i can remember i've been fascinated with money, making it, saving it studying it. by the time i was 31, i'd earned enough to retire. so i embarked on a new mission, helping you take care of your money, so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. now your money expert, clark howard. >> why am i smiling? when you hear what i'm going to talk about, you'll think -- have i lost my mind? foreclosure rates are likely to rise according to experts the rest of the year and into 2010. why would that make me smile? because i don't believe it. in spite of the fact that increasing numbers of americans
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are delinquent on their home loans as and you move up the price point in house, you have an increasing number of people in trouble, the reality is that lenders are finally getting smart about another way out. throughout the first half of this year, the idea of doing a short sale, where a lender agrees to negotiate a lower selling price for a house, and they take a hit on the mortgage balance? was really something talked about that really didn't happen. real estate agents were frustrated beyond belief. but now to the benefit of home owners and, yes, banks, and especially for people buying homes, short sales are actually working. so are we going to see the millions and millions of foreclosures? i don't think so. but are they going to be great deals on houses throughout the rest of this year and next year? you better believe it. get out there and find the deals. and now, what's on your mind? what deal are you dealing with?
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nancy, how are you? >> caller: i'm fine, thank you. >> what's happened to you? >> caller: well, i got a letter yesterday and my husband worked for a big corporation for 32 years. and they're telling me now that since october of '04 to 2009 of april, they found mistake on his pension money. and what it is, is $450 a month, and they want me to pay that through those years, plus interest. >> wait, wait, wait a minute. you're telling me the pension administrator -- >> caller: yes. >> almost five years ago made a mistake in computation. paid $450 too much. they say now they want, let's see, what is that over -- >> caller: that's close to $25,000. >> and they want all $25,000 --
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>> caller: plus interest. >> for their error? how do you know they even did make a mistake? >> well i went back through his retirement papers and i did find that it states when he turned 62, if he's drawing social security, they would take $450 off of his check a month. he got sick in early 2000, he had a disease which did a number on his brain, which causes dementia. well, if he had been in his right mind, he would have known that this was supposed to happen and then he would have called. i haven't been in this position in over 20 years. where i owed anybody anything. >> the company that your husband worked for for the 32 years, was he a union employee or a nonunion? >> caller: yes, he was, he was a union member. >> have you consulted the union? >> caller: no. >> i would request that you contact the union that he worked
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for. the union should get involved. and that's why your husband paid dues all through the years. >> caller: right. >> and the union should be his and his fellow retirees advocates in dealing with the pension administrator for messing up and coming up with a reasonable way for that money to be recouped over time. >> caller: right. >> i would like for you to double back with me nancy, once you've talked to the union. and if the union is not of help to you and the other retirees, i would like to see what i might be able to do to be of help. lola, what's happened, lola? >> caller: well, to make a long story short, there was this young man that my daughter knew and he ended up homeless, gave us a sad story. we brought him to our home. and to give him a place to live. settled up on the rent. and he was working, not too long after that. the transmission went out on his
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car. and i felt sorry for him, because he did not have a way to work. well, i had just got the transmission fixed in my truck, and i told him he could use my truck as long as he promised me one thing -- he would never drink and drive my truck. well, needless to say -- he wrecked my truck. he did over $3,000 worth of damage to it. and got a dwi, thrown in jail and my truck was impounded. he paid about half of it. and once i moved, of course now he's not making payments. he refuses to answer my calls. he refuses to do anything. >> let's talk for a second. first thing i want to tell you -- don't ever give up that wonderful heart of yours. >> caller: okay, yes. >> you can sue him in small
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claims court for the $1500 still unpaid. >> okay. >> and you would file suit the filing fees, in most jurisdictions are not that high. and he's going to have to come explain to the judge why he's being such a deadbeat. >> caller: okay. >> and it will be up to the judge, because a lot of what you're talking about is not in writing anywhere. you didn't get a note from him. >> caller: yes, i do. >> then it's not hearsay. >> caller: i do, i do, i have a signed piece of paper that he promised to restore my truck and pay all the damages. >> well, see, the judge is really not going to have a lot of trouble being on your side on this. i'm going to give you a website to go to to read some of the how-to's of small claims court. >> caller: okay. >> nolo.com and read their small claims court guide. and then after the appeals period is ended, you, then, can go get what's called in many
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jurisdictions a fifa, although it varies by jurisdiction, you can serve his employer and take his pay. next on "clark howard" -- >> how much for downloading this movie? >> caller: $62,000. >> $62,000 to download a single movie?
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do you have a money dilemma this you don't know how to solve? it's so easy to ask me your question. all you do is go to cnn.com/clarkhoward and click the video submission and send me a little video clip of what you want solved. that's what melba has done. >> i'm an environmental scientist at the epa and i need a money coach. my biggest debt is my
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educational loan debt. after i finished school, i was like, there's no way that i can pay this loan back. i don't have a job. i have approximately $150,000 worth of student loan debt. my loans are like -- the thing that i never think about. my question is, how do i pay off all of my student loans. or what's the best way to pay off all of my student loans? >> melba, you got a lot of student loans, but do i have great news for you. there is a brand-new federal program, and since you work for the federal government, if you stay with the feds, you're going to love this. it is an income-based repayment plan. and after ten years' employment with the feds, all your federal loans, whatever remains balance of those, will be forgiven. all right. here's what i want you to do.
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i want you to pay the minimum that's required under the income-based plan toward your federal loans, and throw every last dollar you can towards your private loans. and big priority for you. on the student loan front, here's my rule if you are in skul -- parents of kids getting ready to go to college, do not in four years take out more student loan debt in total than what you're likely earnings are going to be in the first years' employment after college. use that as a maximum ceiling of how much money you borrow. you'll really thank me later if you follow that. you have a complaint about one of the giant cell phone companies. what have they done to you, alberto? >> caller: clark, i recently purchased a wireless card for my computer. because i was moving to, i was going to mexico to pack my belongings. i managed a resort that closed
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down due to the financial crisis. a downloaded a movie and they billed me for $62,000. >> wait, wait. how much for downloading this movie? >> caller: $62,000. >> $62,000 to download a single movie? what did they tell you -- >> caller: they adjusted it to $17,000, which they told me was their cost. for the movie ""wall-e"" by disney that my nephew wanted to watch. not only that, clark, but after we got to the $17,000, they said that they were going to cancel my cellular phone, which was also with them. and i was never told of the consequences of downloading a movie overseas, because they charge by megabytes rather than
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by roaming minutes. >> how high up in the bureaucracy at this cell phone company have you gone to? >> caller: i have sent a letter to the chairman and chief executive officer. to the executive vice president and general council. >> and what answers have you received? >> caller: none, other than a call by supposedly a customer care professional, that told me that the bill was fair and equitable. >> wait a minute. they said that the bill is fair and equitable at the reduced rate of $17,000 for a single movie. we're going to call your cell phone company and hear their explanation for how it's fair and equitable to charge you first, $62,000 for a copy of the movie, ""wall-e"" and let's see what your cell phone provider has to say, who has also shut off your service.
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what wonderful, wonderful people. >> next on "clark howard" -- >> i am very happy, but it couldn't have happened without your interaction. >> well and that's a shame. hate that we had to get involved. because you know, there should have been somebody with more judgment and common sense at the cell phone operator.
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welcome back to "clark howard." if you are just tuning in, you missed alberto's story. alberto was charged $62,000 for downloading a children's movie to his laptop using his cellular service. i have put team clark to work. let's see the results. now alberto, it did work out in this case that you called this. >> caller: yes. >> you know that, huh? >> caller: yes. >> what's happened?
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>> caller: they have absolutely adjusted everything. i am very happy, but it couldn't have happened without your interaction. >> well, and that's a shame, i hate that we had to get involved. because you know, there should have been somebody with more judgment and common sense at the cell phone operator. but the important thing here is you're out of trouble, you're not going to have that problem any more. but everybody, you're on warning now, be very, very careful, these laptop cards are dangerous to your financial health. and not everybody is going to be able to be as lucky as alberto who went from being very unlucky to very lucky. so be careful. what risk are you at of identity theft? we hear so much about it. you see all the commercials about how there's this great way for you to keep your identity from being stolen and all that stuff.
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but how would you figure out how much risk you are actually at? well, there's now a mathematical formula for free, you can run yourself through, and see how much risk you're actually under based on your profile of having your identity stolen. you go to a website called myi.d.score.com. when you get there, you fill out a short amount of information about yourself. and if you're trusting enough, your social security number. i chose to put it in there to see what it would show for me. guess what it showed for me, i was at pretty high risk of identity theft. thank goodness i've already frozen my credit score. i've been on the air 22 years and just when i think i've heard it all -- i hear something you're not going to believe. the call you're going to hear
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next is one that combines two of my least-favorite things. payday loans and bill collectors. and wait 'til you hear this story. michael's with us. michael, how are you doing? >> caller: i'm doing great, clark. how are you? >> wonderful, thank you. you have some collectors that are bugging you. let's talk about them. >> caller: about six years ago, my wife and i got into some financial problems that we're working through. she made a very bad decision. and she did a payday loan over the internet. >> oh. >> caller: we knew it was a problem. we got it taken care of and everything. but actually about six years after that, we start, she gets a call at work, from someone representing a bogus bank. it turned out these people were from the philippines. they told her if she didn't give them a credit card number over the phone and pay a certain amount, that they were going to have the cops come down and arrest her? >> really. >> caller: yes, that was about six months ago.
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so they started calling back again. >> the same people from the philippines calling you? >> caller: yes. and at this point i'm just -- they're calling our family members and stuff. >> they're calling your family members? >> caller: yes. >> what are they saying to your family members? >> that my wife needs to call them. >> so they're not telling the family members that your wife owes money or anything like that? >> caller: no, they say that my wife owes money and she needs to call them. >> they are saying that? >> caller: that's against the law. anyway, what happened was i started, i had their number that they left and i started calling them and i told them we weren't going to pay any money and i actually started having fun with them and they got really mad and said they were going to cut my wife's hands off and going to watch her bleed.
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>> what? they said they were going to cut your wife's hands off? >> caller: yes. and some other things that i'm going to say over the line about abuses they were going to do, and this, that and the other. >> and you think this whole thing ties back to that payday loan your wife took out six years ago? >> caller: what i think is the payday loan people, we called them and they said that they sell the information that we get after six years. >> so the payday lender just sells their customer list, to this phony collection agency in the philippines, that then threatens to harm your wife physically, even in ways that are so awful, that you can't even say them out loud? >> caller: yes, the payday loans want to make money any way they can. and apparently they sell contact information after six years. >> michael, you know there are times i think i've heard it all and then you call and let me know i have not heard it all. next on "clark howard" --
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>> i noticed that the store brand anti-dandruff shampoo was quite bit cheaper. so i went ahead and i got that. and my head started itching and having dandruff problems after that.
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ever since i can remember, i've been fascinated with money, making it, saving it, studying it. by the time i was 31, i earned enough to retire. so i embarked on a new mission -- helping you take care of your money. so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. now from his radio studio, your money expert, clark howard. >> you see the car ads on tv, come on down, we have great deals. sure you do. we're right on the edge of where car dealers are going to have fantastic deals on new cars.
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the car market has been completely fouled up from its normal sales patterns this year, because of cash for clunkers. normally we're in a cycle where in september we would have had great deals. but this year, the great deals are delayed. we're going to have phenomenal offerings from mid-november to probably about mid-january, because of the way the car cycle was modified by cash for clunkers. and really great news -- not only will you get a really good price on a new vehicle, for almost all models out there. but your trade-in, again because of cash for clunkers, should likely bring you a higher amount of dollars than it would have in the past. why? because so many cars were destroyed as part of the cash for clunkers program, raising the value of your trade-in. richard's with us. richard, you want to talk about your mom, is that right? >> caller: recently my 90-plus-year old mother came to live with me and i've been helping her out financially for well over ten years.
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she was always very secretive about her finances. and what i have found out recently to my shock and dismay, is that she has been playing these mail-order lotteries. she lived by herself for a long time. and was got caught up in these lotteries overseas. >> i'm so sorry. >> caller: as a matter of fact, she has run up credit card debt totaling about $34,000. >> no! >> caller: and she has social security, she gets $923 a month. but she had been, practically all the social security goes out to make her monthly payments. so she's now become my dependant. should i have her declare bankruptcy? should we just stop making payments? i hope this doesn't, i hope it doesn't come to the point that i'm going to have to make
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payments on this in any way. >> there are a couple of scenarios i wanted to run by you. one is that you have no legal liability for any of these credit cards. there is no need to file for bankruptcy in this case. she has no assets. >> caller: okay. >> so making -- eating up her whole social security payment to service these credit cards is crazy. now there is something i talked about recently, on the show, called a hardship claim. that is something that she may be eligible for through a local affiliate of the national foundation for credit counseling. but generally what happens is the interest rates go to zero. and there's no fees associated with it at all. and if over time she can pay off the balance, she pays off the balance. if there's any issue that a creditor may at some point attempt to seize money in a bank account, direct deposit of
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social security should stop and people should go back to receiving a paper check and that's what she should do. mike is with us. mike, you're having a problem with a bankrupt cable company? >> caller: it's bankrupt, i wasn't aware of that yeah, back in may i was paying my bills online through my bank. and inadvertently paid the cable company the amount of money i was paying to pay off my credit card. they were one below the other. and didn't think anything of it. clicked pay the way i normally do, until several days later the bank sent me an email notifying me that it had actually paid the bill and i looked to see that it was the cable company and i panicked. and they since may have had $938.70. i can't get it back. >> $938. >> caller: and 70 cents. >> you know, when a company is
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in severe financial trouble, once they have money from you, it is very, very hard to get it back. what have they said to you? have they pled poverty? what has the cable company said about not giving you your money back? >> caller: the first time i called in may and explained to them in tears what i had done, they told me that it would take four to six weeks to get the check back because of the amount of money it was. it was over a certain amount and it would take four to six weeks. so when i called back after the six weeks, the person i talked to said well, they didn't know what they were talking about. it takes six to eight weeks, so you have two more weeks to wait. >> i'm going to do something in this case, with everything you've been through, that normally i would suggest additional steps for you. but considering the fact that this is a bankrupt enterprise that you're trying to get money out of, with your permission, i want us to call this cable
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operator and see if there's anything we can do to get you your money back. >> caller: i would love that. >> i don't know if you were allowed to have your money back, because of the bankruptcy filing, if that is any part of why your $1,000 seems to be lost in space. what an odd and unusual set of circumstances for you to end up out $1,000. hang with me. next on "clark howard" -- >> we called your cable operator and what happened after we called? >> caller: that afternoon, i probably received five phone calls to keep me updated on the progress. >> started saving for college for our son and we aren't sure if we're doing enough.
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>> caller: i was paying my bills online through my bank and inadvertently paid the cable company the amount of money i was paying to pay off my credit card. and they since may have had $938.70. i can't get it back. >> hang on just a second because we are going to call them on your behalf and see what we can make happen for you. we called your cable operator. and what happened after we called? >> caller: i got the first phone call, and they asked me to send them a copy of the bank statement that shows where this amount of money had cleared. and she was very clear. we don't want your account number, cross it off. so i immediately emailed them the statement with it on. and with a little request that
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please keep me updated on the progress of this. that afternoon i probably received five phone calls to keep me updated on the progress. the first was that they had the statement and didn't know when they would get approval for it. but apologizing that i had waited so long. a little while later this he called back and said, well we have the approval. don't know how, you should have the check by the end of the week. we'll get back to you. >> finally called back and said, i've actually seen the check. and you will have it tomorrow. it's going to be fedexed to you. i'll call you back when i have the tracking number. so finally she called back with the tracking number. because i'm still not believing this. she called me back with the tracking number. and told me i would have it you know, wednesday morning. and that she would call me in the morning or sometime on wednesday to make sure that i got it. and lo and behold, at 11:30 fedex showed up at my door and there was the check.
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>> i will tell you the truth, this is one of those cases where i think that we did make a difference. and i really believe you would have never seen this money. >> i'm sure i wouldn't, either. >> and i hate that it took us getting involved. because you know, my whole deal here, is to give people the tools and the knowledge and the confidence to go fight your own battles. and you had done everything i could have expected of somebody. and still ran into a brick wall, which is why we got involved. >> well i so appreciate it and my hat's off to all of you. because i know, as you said, i never would have seen the money otherwise. it's time for "money coach." where you get to ask me your money question for the goals you have in your life. see if i have a good answer for you. let's visit with dan and heather. >> my name is dan. >> my name is heather and we need a money coach.
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>> we started saving for college for our son. and aren't sure if we're doing enough. we started with a 529 plan. and just put a little bit of money in there. and of course with the economy, the market going down, we lost money on that. and decided to lock into the florida prepaid tuition. we'll be paying on that for five years. but that only does cover tuition. >> we're hoping we're doing the right thing. but again with the way the economy going, we decided to with hold putting any money in the 529. dan and i both paid for our college with student loans and other things that sort of hinder our opportunities now. obviously we want to avoid that for him. our question is, what more can we do to save for our child's college education? >> wow, you got a lot of mouths to feed in that household. now another one on the way, three children that you're going to have to raise and pay for college for. but the thing is, do you know what?
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you paid for your own college. you said that set you back. but the truth is, there are so many ways to pay for college. but you know what? there's only one way to pay for your own retirement. so you love your children. you want the best for them. but key thing -- your primary focus and goal should be to beef up your savings for retirement. you need to contribute more each and every month to that, and then if there's money left over, put it towards your kids' college and the prepaid plan. or in a 529 plan. this conflict i've just talked about, do i hear this over and over and over again. and when i talk with older couples, whose kids are now grown, and then i ask what have you saved for retirement? and they kind of can't look at me? because they took all the money and put it toward their kids' college. remember what i've just said. your primary goal with your long-term savings is not, it is
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not your kids' college. there's work, there's loans, there's grants, there's scholarships. but for retirement? you got one thing -- and that's you. next on "clark howard" -- >> what is it that this investment advisor is recommending to your mom. >> caller: a variable annuity. >> what? what? are you serious? >> caller: yes. >> no, no, no, no!
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arthur is with us. hi, arthur, how are you doing? >> caller: i'm doing well, thanks, clark. >> so you're watching out for your mom. that's a good son, watching out for her. >> caller: thank you. i'm trying to. she has subsequent to the death of my father, is taking care of her financial matters. and -- >> first, i'm sorry about the the loss of your dad. >> caller: thank you. and an investment advisor
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recommended investment product to her. that i'm somewhat skeptical of. >> would you tell me how old your mom is? >> caller: she's 72. >> and what is it that this investment advisor is recommending to your mom? >> caller: a variable annuity. >> what? what? are you serious? >> caller: yes. >> no, no, no, no, no! that is wrong! i don't know if that individual investment advisor is just misguided or is a dishonest individual. but there is absolutely never a circumstance -- never -- where a variable annuity would be proper for someone in her 70s. variable annuity is a type of insurance product that has massive commissions, and massive ongoing expenses and huge, what
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are known as surrender charges. the idea at 72 is that normally your mom is not looking for something that might generate an income for her at 100. your mom is looking for something that will cover her needs for the remainder of her lifetime. >> caller: well is this advice so egregiously bad -- >> yes. >> caller: that we should take our business elsewhere? >> i would consider that. there's not even a reasonable difference of opinion on this. flat-out bad, rotten, terrible, crooked advice. our next caller, joyce, has a real dilemma. a tough one, within a family. almost biblical. she has to make a decision whether she should do what's best for her or what's best for her daughter. joyce, what's going on in your life? >> caller: okay. we gave our daughter a five-acre
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piece of property about ten years ago. and she has put a home on it. now she has a first and second mortgage and is unable to make the payments. and they're getting ready to foreclosure. with the first and second mortgage, would it be best for us to contact these folks and ask about how we can refinance it, take it over, or would it be best for them to foreclosure? and then for us to wait until the foreclosure takes place? would we get a better deal then? >> for your daughter, having late pays and the house being rescued by you for her, short of foreclosure, is much better for her credit than her going through foreclosure. >> caller: yes. >> and that's number one. number two, though, you will be able to obtain the property after the foreclosure, once it
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becomes what's known as reo, or real estate owned. what will happen is the holder of the second mortgage will be wiped out by the claim of the first mortgage at the foreclosure. and the foreclosure will end up first mortgage at the foreclosure. and the foreclosure will end up in the hands of the bank that has the first mortgage. it will then go into their reo department and you will be in a position in the reo department to buy the property back for potentially a lot less than what even that first mortgage was. you would absolutely get a better deal on the property if you're quiet and wait till it goes to reo status. >> caller: okay. >> now the only downside risk from your perspective -- and we'll come back to your daughter in a second -- from your perspective is if for system reason there was somebody who had his or her eye on the property and once it goes into
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reo they end up buying it right out from under you. how much you want to keep your daughter out of harm's way versus how much do you want to keep this property and maybe get a good deal on it? >> caller: those are some real difficult questions. >> and they're completely different. i mean, that's the thing. >> caller: yes. >> i mean, we're dealing with an ethical dilemma, a family dilemma here. that's really a call for you to make. >> caller: yes. >> if you would like to step in and prevent the financial harm that comes with a foreclosure to your daughter, know that you will have to pay pretty much the full balance on the loan. you're not going to get large concessions. >> caller: yes. >> if you step in. after the fact, you may pick up the property, or who knows, half of what the outstanding balance is. >> caller: yes. so that's what we probably should do. >> well, and that is a decision that you've got to make.
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>> next on "clark howard" -- >> you spent these years living well below your income and it made a permanent change in how you handle money and your life by toughing it out and paying it off.
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